Reducing the File Size of Scanned PDF’s

If you are struggling with the size of scanned PDFs.

Let’s discuss four factors that affect the size of scanned documents, and how to make the size of the scanned document smaller.

• Scanning Resolution & Colour Settings
  A scan at 600 dpi results in a much larger file than at 300 dpi. When scanning a document, go to the scanner/printer settings and select text, and make the scanning resolution 150dpi or 96dpi.

  This will result in a smaller document size.

• Colour Space
  Colour and grayscale files result in much larger file sizes than black and white files. When scanning a document, select grayscale/black and white, this will reduce the size of your document drastically.
• Physical dimensions of the scanned page
  An A3 colour scan will be larger than an A4 colour size scan, with all other factors being equal.
• Compression
  Some printers/scanners support document compression, by selecting compression this can also reduce the file size.